Deputy whose patrol car fatally struck former Napster executive named

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This undated photo shows Milton Olin Jr., an entertainment attorney and former Napster executive who was killed Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013 after his bicycle was struck by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s patrol car.

The Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy whose patrol car struck and killed Milton Everett Olin Jr., a former executive with the online music site Napster, on Mulholland Highway as he rode his bicycle earlier this month was a 16-year veteran of the department, the Daily News has learned.

The deputy involved in the Dec. 8 collision in Calabasas is Deputy Andrew Wood, who is attached to the Malibu/Lost Hills station, a sheriff’s watch commander said this week.

Wood, who was taken to the hospital with arm lacerations and glass in his eyes, has not returned to work since the incident, officials said.

Department spokesman Steve Whitmore declined to confirm or deny Wood’s involvement in the incident, but said the deputy’s work status is officially listed as on vacation. Wood could not be reached for comment.

A memorial will be held at 2 p.m. today for the prominent entertainment attorney at the former A&M Records lot, where Olin once served as chief operating officer and senior vice president, at 1416 North La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles, family members said in a statement released Friday. The site is now the Jim Henson Co. Lot.

“We would like to thank the community for the outpouring of support and comfort we have received over the last two weeks following the senseless death of our beloved Milt,” the statement said. “We especially want to acknowledge the heartfelt concern of the biking community of which Milt was a proud member. While Milt’s death is a profound loss to the family, his many friends, colleagues and clients, we hope his death will bring greater awareness to the safety needs of the biking community.”

The family said it was committed to working toward safety reform to better protect the state’s cyclists. A recording of the Dec. 21 tribute will be available on Olin’s memorial website at www.MiltOlin.com.

Sheriff’s officials said they’re still interviewing witnesses in the incident in which the deputy’s patrol car struck the cyclist in the 22400 block of Mulholland Highway in Calabasas shortly after 1 p.m. on Dec. 8. Olin and the patrol car were both traveling east when Olin, in an area where there is one lane of travel, was struck inside the bicycle lane, said Sgt. Joseph Jakl of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Internal Investigations Division. The cyclist was pronounced dead at the scene.

Jakl did not say whether the deputy had his lights flashing at the time or how the cyclist was hit.

The deputy “put out a radio broadcast after the collision calling for help and paramedics,” Jakl said earlier this week. The deputy has also provided a written statement describing his version of events but Jakl declined to release the statement.

“I haven’t contacted or recontacted all the witnesses; there were four people in a car behind the radio car,” Jakl said. “I haven’t talked to all of them yet. I’m still working on it. I don’t have any conclusions as of yet.”

Olin reportedly landed on the windshield and shattered the glass before rolling off the patrol car.

On Friday, friends who had traveled from around the country for today’s remembrance of Olin signed messages on a memorial “ghost bike” chained to a sign near the scene of the collision. The bike was painted white and adorned with several bouquets of flowers, a guitar, a UCLA Bruins hat, and signed water bottles.

Longtime friend Richard Clark of San Antonio, Texas, who served in the U.S. Navy with Olin during the Vietnam war in 1968-69, said the accident was tragic.

“I hope the L.A. Sheriff’s Department … does a good job investigating and that it doesn’t get swept under the rug,” Clark said. “He was a wonderful, warm, loving, kind human being. Bright and humorous.”

Danielle and Michael Megnus of Portland, Ore, were also in town to pay their respects. Michael Megnus attended law school with Olin and his wife said he “was a great friend.”

Cyclist Lisa Buckland, 47, said she didn’t know Olin but rides up that portion of Mulholland Highway at least twice a week.

“I’ve always felt safe literally in that area but that particular part of Mulholland where that bike lane is, I’ve almost been hit by people coming up that merge lane,” she said, pointing out that the accident appears to have happened close to where a merge lane and Mulholland Highway come together near Alice C. Stelle Middle School. “I just know that people drive up that merge lane too fast.”

Sheriff’s officials have not said whether the deputy had entered Mulholland Highway from the merge lane before Olin was struck.

When asked how the deputy is doing, Jakl said he had no direct knowledge.

“Last I heard, he is not doing too well,” he said. “He knows there was a fatality and I think he’s very sad.”

Law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP, on behalf of the family, has sent a letter to the department asking it to preserve evidence in the incident, Jakl said. An attorney from the firm confirmed the letter but said it was “routine.”

The Sheriff’s Department has so far declined to release any 9-1-1 calls and radio calls related to the incident. Wood could not be reached for comment Friday.

Olin, who was 65 and lived in Woodland Hills, served as chief operating officer for Napster before he became partner of the Encino-based Altschul & Olin LLP.

Brenda Gazzar is a multilingual multimedia reporter who has worked for a variety of news outlets in California and in the Middle East since 2000. She has covered a range of issues, including breaking news, immigration, law and order, race, religion and gender issues, politics, human interest stories and education. Besides the Los Angeles Daily News and its sister papers, her work has been published by Reuters, the Denver Post, Ms. Magazine, the Jerusalem Post, USA Today, the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, The Cairo Times and others. Brenda speaks Spanish, Hebrew and intermediate Arabic and is the recipient of national, state and regional awards, including a National Headliners Award and one from the Associated Press News Executives' Council. She holds a dual master's degree in Communications/Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.